On Friday, the Washington Post reported that ICE will be conducting raids targeting up to 2,000 immigrant families this upcoming week, beginning as early as Sunday morning. Other news outlets indicated that these massive enforcement actions would take place in 10 major U.S. cities where immigration courts are located. 

Kris Hayashi, executive director of Transgender Law Center, the largest national trans-led organization advocating for a world in which all people are free to define themselves and their futures, issued the following statement: 

“Trump’s threats of mass deportations are an act of state violence. They are meant to spread fear through undocumented communities. In response, we must not sit idly by while our friends, family, and neighbors are ripped from their homes. We must stay vigilant and spread know your rights information, not panic. 

“Currently, there are more than 50,000 people in ICE custody in immigrant prisons around the country. Recently, these immigrant prisons have been called concentration camps because of the horrifying reality that people are dying while in custody of immigration enforcement without the U.S. government even batting an eye. LGBTQ migrants know this all too well. The deaths of Roxsana Hernandez and Johana Medina and the brutal detention of Black and brown LBGTQ+ migrants show that ICE has no business detaining people.  

“Our #StonewallIsNow National Day of Action next week is our response to this state violence. The government needs to be held accountable for the deaths of Black and brown trans women. From proposed rules threatening our access to health care and housing, the Trump administration continues to push policies and rhetoric that threaten our survival. The same state that targeted us in 1969 is still killing us in prisons, detention centers, and inciting violence against us in public. 

“We are not free, until all of us are free.” 

For more information on the National Day of Action, visit https://transgenderlawcenter.org/stonewall-is-now.